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Chapter 17
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Milkweed, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Identity and Relationships
War, Dehumanization, and Innocence
Ingenuity, Resilience, and Survival
Family
Summary
Analysis
By the following day, Uri finds Misha and the other orphan boys in the ghetto. Misha asks Uri if he has a work permit that lets him go outside the ghetto wall, but Uri just says, “Don’t ask.”
The sense of mystery surrounding Uri grows—he obviously has a life outside the ghetto, but he doesn’t want the other orphans to know about it.
Themes
One day, Misha sees a boy sleeping in the middle of the sidewalk, covered with a newspaper. Uri tells Misha the boy is dead. He could have died from cold, or starvation, or a disease like typhus. Soon, Misha notices bodies everywhere. He wonders who covers the bodies with newspaper and takes them away, and he decides that it must be angels.
Historically, life in the ghetto was filled with disease, malnutrition, and other deadly conditions. Misha, however, still views death through relatively innocent eyes: he doesn’t recognize it at first, and then he’s sure that heavenly beings care for those who die. As things in the ghetto worsen, Misha’s innocent outlook will be tested more and more.
Themes
